This chapter is intended for users minimally assigned the authenticated-role (that is, users who can log in to the WebCenter Spaces application) who want to establish their general application preferences. This includes selecting a display language, identifying your preferred date and time formats, specifying a time zone, providing external application login information, and the like.

35.1 Accessing the Preferences Dialog

The easiest way to open the Preferences dialog is to click the Preferences link (Figure 35-1).

Figure 35-1 Preferences Link

The availability of navigational links, such as the Preferences link, is determined by the people who design and build your WebCenter Spaces portal. This being so, you may not see a Preferences link. In such a case, ask your application administrator to make the Preferences link available.

35.2 Choosing Your Preferred Display Language

The display language controls the language in which user interface (UI) elements are rendered in your browser. UI elements include button and field labels, application links, screen text, and so on. The display language also provides options for reflecting the current locale. Locale controls the appearance of symbols, such as monetary symbols, and the reading direction in which UI text is rendered.

H:M:S AM/PM Time Zone—To display hour, minutes, seconds, AM or PM, and the abbreviation of the specified time zone, such as 4:47:52 PM PDT

Date Format

The following list shows date formats; the formats in the UI reflect the current date:

No Preference—To use the default date format set by the WebCenter Spaces administrator

M/D/YY—To use a number format, such as 6/18/10

MON D, YYYY—To use an abbreviation format and the full year, such as Jun 18, 2010

Month D, YYYY—To display the full month name and the full year, such as June 18, 2010

DAY, MONTH D, YYYY—To display the full month name, the full year, and include the day of the week, such as Friday, June 18, 2010

Time Zone

From the Time Zone pick list, select your preferred time zone. Alternatively select No Preference to accept the application-level default set by your WebCenter Spaces Administrator.

Click OK to save your changes and exit the Preferences dialog, or click Apply to save your changes without exiting.

35.4 Enabling or Disabling Application Accessibility Options

The General panel in the Preferences dialog provides options related to user accessibility. Select an option to optimize the application user interface (UI) for use with a screen reader, such as JAWS, or disable such optimization.

This section provides information about the use of screen readers with WebCenter Spaces and steps you through the process of enabling the optimization of UI content for use with a screen reader.

35.4.1 What You Should Know about Application Accessibility Options

The WebCenter Spaces application provides accessibility features to enable visually and non-visually impaired users to navigate successfully through the application user interface. This section contains some tips to assist you in using them successfully.

Use the Accessibility Settings option Disable Screen Reader to enable keyboard-centric accessibility capabilities for a sighted user with non-visual impairments, such as mouse usage issues. This option also handles color contrasts.

Use the Accessibility Settings option Enable Screen Reader to optimize the UI for the JAWS screen reader. Once you set your screen reader preference to enabled, click OK to exit Preferences. If you want to set other options in Preferences, then reopen the Preferences dialog. The other Preferences panels, Password, My Accounts, Messaging, People Connections, Presence, Subscriptions, Search, and Mail, are redrawn as radio buttons, enabling the screen reader to detect and access them.

Normally, the screen reader JAWS announces the links associated with a menu selection. With the Actions menu, JAWS does not announce the submenu items. For example, JAWS does not read the submenu items under Manage on the Actions menu. The workaround is to select the menu items using direct keyboard navigation. That is, instead of using JAWS Links chooser, navigate to the Manage submenu of the Actions menu using the Tab key on your keyboard.

Not all dropdown menus, fields, and radio buttons on Space administration pages are labeled. As a result, the JAWS screen reader renders a pound sign (#) instead of a label when the JAWS command Insert-F7 is invoked. The problem occurs in the following areas:

Dropdown menus in Space administration pages

Radio buttons on Space administration pages

Fields on the Documents page

The workaround is to use the Tab and arrow keys to navigate to each individual form field in order to hear each form field read.

When you add resources from the Resource Catalog, JAWS announces all Resource Catalog items as Add. This makes it difficult to identify the selected resource. To work around this issue, press the Tab key to get to the Add link for the resource, then press the Down Arrow key. JAWS then reads the description of the resource.

Once you enable screen reader mode, click OK to exit Preferences. If you want to set other options in Preferences, then reopen the Preferences dialog. The other Preferences panels: Password, My Accounts, Messaging, People Connections, Presence, Subscriptions, Search, and Mail, are redrawn as radio buttons, enabling the screen reader to detect and access them.

Click OK to save your change and exit the Preferences dialog, or click Apply to save your change without exiting.

35.5 Changing the Home Space Look and Feel in Your View

The General panel in the Preferences dialog provides a pick-list of application skins for your view of the Home Space. Application skins specify the application background color, screen fonts, and, with some skins, the shapes and images used for application buttons and icons. The skin you select through Preferences affects the look and feel of your view of the Home Space. No other users' views and no other areas of the application are affected.

35.6 Changing Your WebCenter Spaces Password

Provided your application administrator has enabled you to do so, you can change your WebCenter Spaces password. Changing your password on a regular basis is one way you can participate directly in securing your application software.

See Also:

Your application administrator can prohibit you from changing your application password. If this feature is disabled, you cannot take the steps described in this section. For more information, see Section 6.4.3.4, "Configuring Profile."

The requirements for this password are driven by the identity store that manages WebCenter Spaces application users. Every ID store has its own password policy that enforces rules such as password length, password history, and so on. If you have issues setting a new password, contact your application administrator for the password requriements and restricitions of your ID store.

In the Confirm New Password field, enter your new password again.

Click OK to save your change and exit the Preferences dialog, or click Apply to save your change without exiting.

35.7 Providing Login Information for External Applications

The My Accounts panel in the Preferences dialog provides one-stop access to login credentials for all external applications that have been configured by your application administrator. My Accounts provides a way to store application login credentials so that you provide them only once for the life of the credential. Once you have provided your credentials, every time you access an external application within WebCenter Spaces, the login credentials are provided automatically. This gives you a single-sign-on type of experience where one login (to WebCenter Spaces) provides access to multiple applications.

Note:

If you change the login credentials for an application, you must enter them again into WebCenter Spaces Preferences as described in this section.

The applications you see on the My Accounts panel are the ones that were configured by your application administrator. Contact your application administrator to request additional applications.

Enter log-in credentials as required for the selected application.

Fields requiring values are marked with an asterisk (*).

Note:

Login credentials vary from one application to another. For example, some applications may require user name and password, while others may require those values along with additional values, such as your mail address.

Select Remember my login information to enable automatic authentication to the selected application every time you log in to WebCenter Spaces.

Note:

When you do not select Remember my login information, the login information that you enter is used only for the current user session. The next time you log in to WebCenter Spaces, you must also log in to this application.

Click OK to save your change and exit the Preferences dialog, or click Apply to save your change without exiting.